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First time reviewing our project? Here’s how to get started: 1. Read the entries under PROJECTS > PROJECT SCOPE + GOALS in the right-hand column. You’ll get a quick overview of the project Oh Beans! and see our goals and objectives. 2. Quickly scan the ratings we give ourselves on choices we make along the way. If you want to offer your thoughts or advice, feel free to add your comment! 3. Check back often and have fun watching!
What have I been up to this past month? Sorting through my ”pirate’s chest” full of fine jewelry and components and launching my Oh!Gems online storefront at Etsy.com. Check out my crazy deep discounts, often 50% or more on all items, in celebration of this grand opening. You’ll find some great stocking stuffers like pearl earrings starting at $15.00, and free shipping is offered to any U.S. address.
So with the distractions of launching a new business, enjoying Thanksgiving with family, and gearing up for the Christmas season, I’m giving this entry a red flag. I think I’m at risk for making my ambitious deadline of having a new product developed in time for Christmas. BUT! The project continues to move forward. I’ve been in touch with Nanz Aalund, my favorite master jewelry craftswoman and former colleague at Nordstrom, and will entrust my fine-quality coffee bean design concept to her experienced hands. This won’t get done until after the new year as I need to source the diamonds and decide on the type of finish to apply to the gold. In the meantime, the fun coffee bean charms and beads are in the final stages of production. I finally figured out how to set up the wax for the drill holes, and will put the final polish on them at my jewelry bench. Then we’ll see how well they sell on my online storefront Oh!Gems at Etsy.com. Enjoy the season!
 Coffee beans are created in five metals. Left to right: sterling silver, yellow bronze, white bronze, brass, and pewter.  Original coffee bean with silver jump ring glued on top. The pink in the lower crevice is residue from the pink rubber mold.
So what do I think? Well, they are a perfect replica of what I sent, as you can see. I attached a silver jump ring with glue to a coffee bean and sent it on its way, and got back exactly what I asked for. But it didn’t quite come out as I had envisioned in my mind. So let’s pause for a second and focus on what happens in a lot of product development efforts: You don’t always get what you want on the first go-around. In my fine jewelry scenario, this would have looked a lot richer, and more expensive. With a bit of polish, this works great as a charm for the low-price-point market. However I’m envisioning a nice pendant with more class, polish, and perhaps less “reality”. I may need to go more for an abstract affect. And yeah, some diamonds. I need to contact my former colleague, Nanz Aalund, a fine jewelry artist who now teaches classes in Washington state. I hope she has time to help out on this project. In the meantime, I’ll be drilling the holes in the wax coffee bean bead models and returning to Billanti. Now that I see how these metals look, I can narrow down my request to brass which I’ll silver plate in sterling to keep the cost affordable for the bead industry. And I’m in week two of my jewelry metalsmithing class where I’m learning what I don’t know, and appreciating the skill it takes for the fabricators of this industry. Taking a class with an open studio is a great way to get my hands on tools without having to purchase.
I phoned Billanti this morning to review the contents of the box. My first concern is the missing pendant. I hear the pendant items are being sent today, and as we originally discussed, in several metals including sterling silver, bronze, pewter and brass. Well that’s a good thing. The COD amount is $211.54 which will conclude the costs of Billanti’s charges for the original project scope: a coffee bean pendant. And I will have samples of this pendant in several metals to determine which alloy I will produce for my final piece. But I still have an unknown: will these beans be in final polished form ready for sale, or will they need additional polishing? So what did I have in the box? The two pink molds were not supposed to be sent to me. Typically the manufacturer hangs on to these for my exclusive future use, and sending these to me was an oversight on Billanti’s part. The molds will need to be returned to Billanti for my future orders. There are 2 sets of yellow wax models of coffee beans for my drilling, an extra set in case one is destroyed as I drill them. Once the drilling is done, I’ll return these to Billanti for casting as the bean-shaped beads I will sell. I end today with a couple of questions: (1) where do I get the right tools to carefully drill the holes in the bean waxes, and (2) will the bean pendants require additional steps of polishing when they arrive. These are both steps I’m not skilled at doing, nor own the tools to perform. I can either purchase the tools and attempt these steps myself with zero skill, hire a professional to do the steps (at possibly the same cost the tools would run), or enroll in a jewelry class and see if my instructor may assist me in these two steps. I opt to go the route of enrolling in a class. I figure I can always put the knowledge and skills learned to good use down the road. Expenses to date: $342.10, or 68% of $500 budget. And I’m not sure if I will receive a finished prototype of the pendant. I surely have a ways to go on the coffee bean beads, plus cost of a jewelry class. I may blow my budget.
With some butterflies I opened the package shipped from Billanti, not knowing what to expect. This is the first package received from this manufacturer. As I open it, I’m looking (and judging) everything from the shipping label on the outside, the packing materials used, and what condition the items are in. There are a number of items in the box: Two pink rubber molds, two tins containing wax models, and a pen and ruler promotional item with Billanti’s company information, and lots of packing material. I open the tins and view the invoice to reconcile payments against items received. What I’m most eager to see is the coffee bean pendant wax model with the jump ring, confirming the item made it through the prototype process with no damage.
It’s not in the box. I look at all items a second time, and realize that I’ve been sent the wax molds and models of the five coffee beans for the beads, but the pendant is not included. Now I’m worried somehow the item got lost in translation and was overlooked, or some other explanation. I’ll need to give Billanti a call in the morning to understand exactly what I just received.  A pink rubber mold arrives sliced in half, revealing the shape left from the 3 original brown coffee beans.  Yellow wax was inserted into the pink mold resulting in a stem with 3 new yellow wax coffee beans. We will drill the 3 beans, creating a channel for our beading cord, then return the wax to Billanti for the casting step.
I got an email from UPS saying to expect a package in two days with a COD balance due of $113.06. Oh, that’s right…Billanti never asked for cash up front! She originally quoted me a price range for the finished goods early in our conversations, but I didn’t press for clarity on costs or how payments would be made. I heard her quote, and it was at a point when I was thinking of only doing one pendant, so I didn’t give much thought to blowing my budget. With a tight project budget of $500 and increase in the scope of the project (going from a single necklace pendant to one pendant plus five beads) I’m concerned I’m at risk of overshooting the project budget. The $113.06 is lower than Billanti’s initial estimate, so I’m unclear of what these charges are covering. It’s not good to be unclear on what project expenses are, especially when an invoice pushes you past the 20% mark on overall budget. Tonight my excitement about the arriving package is tempered by concerns over budget.
I drive across Florida state, tempted to stop in at the seashell shop and buy more stuff for Christmas presents, but I hold back the temptation. There will be another time, I know. I introduce myself to Mary and she introduces me to Peter, and in the course of an hour we share our stories of worldly travels, the gem trade, the impact of our economy on the jewelry business, and more. Peter brings out a plastic grocery bag full of valuable fine quality gemstones he’s acquired on recent trips, right there in the middle of the coffee shop. It’s not that unusual for me or the two of them, but must have appeared rather odd to other customers. Peter shares his opinion of local chapters of gem society meetings, and Mary gives me a list of who’s who in the jewelry trade in Florida. I’m impressed with how well connected she is and willing to point me in the right direction. At the end of our meeting, Mary offers to take me by a local art gallery that represents her one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces. The curator of the gallery is in the midst of rearranging all displays for an upcoming event, but takes time to bring out all of Mary’s pieces for us to view. So from a quick question of Billanti for a local referral to someone who can finish my pieces, I find conversation with two other well-connected people in the trade, and am introduced to a gallery curator. I take a final drive on the sands of the Atlantic ocean (literally…you can legally drive on the sand at wave’s edge) then head back home. I value the time I commit to meeting new people face-to-face in business. You never know where it can lead. But did I accomplish what I needed to? I learned that Mary teaches jewelry classes which begin in a few days, and it doesn’t make economical sense for me to drive across state to attend. And I didn’t press to see if she would be willing to do “trade work”… working for others in the trade on a wholesale pay scale for services rendered. She appeared to be a fine jewelry artist enjoying the benefits of a strong retail following. I don’t yet have a solution of how I will be finishing my coffee beans.
Billanti called me with my package in hand and asks why I sent 5 additional beans without jump rings. I explain I want all 5 shapes because they are subtly different in size, and I will be selling them as beads…my customers will want variety if using multiples in a necklace. I explain I want a drill hole in all of them. And I want them nicely polished when returned, ready to go on the neck chain. Project finished, right? Time out…Billanti needs to reset my expectations of what they can and can’t do, and where their expertise lies. Okay, so understanding exactly what a supplier can do, and thorough communication, is key to keeping the client informed and everyone on the same page. Billanti explains they are a casting house and do my production, not a design house (they typically receive the wax molds from bench artists who have done the fine detail work), and they are not a finishing supplier to the jewelry trade. For those steps, I need to seek another resource. I ask if she has any ideas or referrals (I always love to ask this question, because it very quickly puts you in the loop of trusted vendors who work together…similar to me asking the 3-D equipment manufacturer for his best overseas client which in turn may become my future jewelry supplier). She gives me the name of a jewelry artist that is located in Florida, coincidentally another 30 miles beyond the seashell guy I visited last week. Yeah, another road trip. I love road trips. So I finish the day with a couple of thoughts: my prototype made it in one piece; I still have some work to do in getting my finished product in hand; I probably need to figure out a way to finish the pieces myself, or be prepared to find someone I can hire to do this step. This is pretty typical of getting a prototype created…lots of unknowns, but no radical failures at this point. I’m at a decision point in either hiring someone to do my finish work, or me taking a class. The pros of taking the class are (1) learning a skill I can put to use down the road when dealing with goldsmiths – I’ll be much more knowledgeable of the process and can spec my items more clearly, and (2) I will have the skills to create and finish my own designs. Which brings up a conversation I have with myself: I don’t want to be a jewelry manufacturer. This is a test project, even though I am keenly interested in continuing with this as a product line if successful. And if successful, I’ll want to hire others who can produce these by the 1,000’s. Even if it’s a smaller quantity, say a diamond-encrusted beauty that sells in a fine jewelry store, I’ll want someone else doing the production. And if I opt to take the class, I either need to invest in the tools, or find a studio where I can use their bench and tools on an as-needed basis. I’m at a crossroads and have some decisions to make.
Billanti calls me while I’m scouring through Christmas ornaments and fake flowers in a wholesale store. Yes, another distraction. However this is just a big store with retail prices that heavily promote themselves as a wholesaler open to the public, a common marketing strategy these days. Alright! Another project idea…importing everlasting botanicals. Stay tuned… So Billanti walks me through the images she has from my email. She tells me the coffee bean can be made into a wax mold, but if I want a pendant jump ring on the top for the necklace chain, that will need to be glued to the bean before she creates the wax mold. I also think this may be a shape that would have sales potential in bead shops. So I decide to have one made as a pendant with a jump ring, and several to be made which I’ll drill to be sold as beads. This snap decision has just allowed for “feature creep”, a term I know all-to-well from the software industry which means we keep adding complexity to the product which puts us at risk for veering off course. With this one decision I essentially blow apart the scope of my project goals: 1 necklace pendant, and beads for an entirely different industry and customer. Because of this, I’m assigning a “concern” flag to this decision. Tonight I dumped a pound of coffee beans on my table and sorted through to find those with the most desirable shape. After several attempts at gluing on a jump ring without having it slip off or dry at an odd angle, I’m pleased with one result. I wrap it up in a paper envelope used for storing loose gems and gently place it in bubble wrap, and wonder if it’s going to arrive without being bent or broken off. I also add another 5 beans that are pleasantly shaped for the beads. My instructions to Billanti are to create wax molds and return for my approval and final drilling. The next steps after that will be to create the cast from the wax molds, then pour the metal alloys in gold or silver to form the final pieces of jewelry. Spot check on progress:
(No money spent for coffee beans, I used what I had on hand from the kitchen. No money spent on photography or computer to surf the web as I already owned these.)
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I can’t believe I’ve lost so much momentum on my project. Ah the craziness of the holiday season. 
With great anticipation I open the parcel sent by Billanti which includes the coffee bean pendant in various metals. Several envelopes contain the results in sterling silver, yellow bronze, white bronze, brass and pewter. The illustration below shows the different coloring of metals. Note this is what the pendants look like straight from the casting step with light tumbling. No fine polishing has yet been done.
I made a phone call to the jewelry artist Billanti referred me to, and explain I was recommended by Rosemarie Billanti. We talk about my project and I ask if she would mind meeting me for coffee. She offers to introduce me to another gemologist in the area she knows, and I sense my network continuing to grow. This is important since I recently relocated to Florida and am eager to get connected with other professionals that can help me in my business ventures. We agree to meet next week.
After looking at the way several casting companies presented themselves on the web, I opt to give